A very British affair

The happy couple are seen on Wednesday outside the marital home beginning a new life together as civil partners. One of the couple's first appointments to the Cabinet is The Rt Hon Theresa May MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department and Minister for Women and Equalities.

Theresa May, the new Minister with responsibility for Equalities has voted consistently against gay and transgendered rights. In 1998 she voted against equalising the age of consent and in 2000, she voted against the repeal of Section 28, legislation that banned the 'promotion' of homosexuality by local government and schools.

In 2001 and 2002 she also voted against gay couples jointly adopting children.

May didn't attend Parliament for any of the four votes that led to the Gender Recognition Act.

Troughers to elect new Speaker

Monday sees the day when the troughers will start the election process for their new speaker. In a scenario reminiscent of George Orwell's Animal Farm, the pigs will choose a new Napoleon to intimidate the other animals and consolidate his power.

Napoleon uses Squealer, the pig who spreads Napoleon's propaganda, to explore the ways in which those in power often use rhetoric and language to twist the truth and gain and maintain social and political control.

Napolean promises in his address to the animals:

"Animal Farm, Animal Farm,
Never through me shalt thou come to harm!"

Now if there was one thing that the animals were completely certain of, it was that they did not want Martin back. When it was put to them in this light, they had no more to say. The importance of keeping the pigs in good health was all too obvious. So it was agreed without further argument that the milk and the windfall apples (and also the main crop of apples when they ripened) should be reserved for the pigs alone.

The vote was taken at once, and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats were also comrades. There were only four dissentients, the three dogs and the cat, who was afterwards discovered to have voted for all the candidates.

"ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS."

Nothing changes, eh.

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Wholly, exclusively and necessarily

The long awaited MPs' expenses claims forms are published on the Parliament website today, albeit in a redacted format. It seems that a lot of MPs had moments of temporary blindness when completing their claims and failed to read, or understand, what they were signing.

On the ACA2 Additional Costs Allowance Member's Claim Form there is a warning statement at the beginning of the form -

You can only claim for

• costs you have actually paid


• additional expenses wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred to enable you to stay away from your main home for the purpose of performing your Parliamentary duties.

Similarly, at the end of the form where the MP signs off the claim, there is an additional warning statement.

For the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 the House of Commons Administration is a Public Authority and therefore the information it holds will fall within the scope of that Act.

The only reason we know anything about all those claims for light bulbs and moat cleaning is that campaigning journalist Heather Brooke has spent the last five years fighting tooth and nail for MPs to come clean about their expenses.

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• Your right to know (Heather Brooke's blog)
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Magna Carta

Today is the 794th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta, a document sealed by King John of England on June 15, 1215, in which he made a series of promises to his subjects that he would govern England and deal with his vassals according to the customs of feudal law. Magna Carta remains a major document in the history of individual liberty, but only clauses 39 and 40 of Magna Carta remain valid law in England. Nonetheless, Magna Carta remains a major document in the history of individual liberty.


The two most important clauses of Magna Carta are among the legal clauses.

This clause establishes that the king would follow legal procedure before he punished someone. In Clause 39, the King promises:

“No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or outlawed or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go or send against him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”

This clause establishes the principle of equal access to the courts for all citizens without exorbitant fees. Clause 40 promises:

“To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice.”